Because it is so tightly tethered to comedy, we almost never use the word ‘improv’ in relation to GameChangers (unless we’re referring to actual comedy improv).
We do, however, use the word ‘imp.’ I have always associated the idea of impishness–of being playfully mischievous–with improvisation and even sometimes refer to improvisers as ‘my fellow imps.’ While waiting on a Skype call this morning with Hildy Gottlieb of Creating the Future, I decided to look up the roots of the word ‘imp.’
Turns out that ‘imp’ comes from an entirely different strain of language than ‘improvise,’ which is derived the Latin root ‘improvisere,’ meaning ‘not foreseen.’ ‘Imp’ has Old English roots, a little Latin attribution. Yet there’s a lot of overlap, like a family from Naples and one from Nottingham having a lot in common.
Here’s how the TheFreeDictionary.com, an aggregator of print dictionary listings, defines it:
imp ( mp)
n.
1. A mischievous child.
2. A small demon.
3. Obsolete A graft.
tr.v. imped, imp·ing, imps
1. To graft (new feathers) onto the wing of a trained falcon or hawk to repair damage or increase flying capacity.
2. To furnish with wings.
[Middle English impe, scion, sprig, offspring, from Old English impa, young shoot, from impian, to graft, ultimately from Medieval Latin impotus, graft, from Greek emphutos, grafted, from emphuein, to implant : en-, in; see en-2 + phuein, to make grow; see bheu
 - in Indo-European roots.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
imp [ɪmp]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003
| Noun | 1. |  imp – (folklore) fairies that are somewhat mischievous
folklore – the unwritten lore (stories and proverbs and riddles and songs) of a culture
leprechaun – a mischievous elf in Irish folklore
sandman – an elf in fairy stories who sprinkles sand in children’s eyes to make them sleepy
|
| 2. |  imp – one who is playfully mischievous
|
imp
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002
imp
adj impish
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GameChangers summary: Both ‘imp’ and ‘improvisation’ express themes of playfulness, the getting of wings, a childlike view of the world, and a mischievous spirit that results in some kind of transformation. Like improvisation, the imping that describes a plant graft builds on an existing reality. Impishness isn’t a seed. It is a branch grafted onto the existing reality of the tree. It isn’t a new wing, it is adding feathers to a bird that already has wings.
Growth, flight, magic. What fantastic themes these are. Imp on!
I grew up on a farm. My father spent a lot of time away from our farm selling and installing systems for other farmers that gave them more opportunity at what was, quite literally, the grass roots level.